Gikongoro Province

Its population was estimated at 466,451 (1990) and 511,776 (2002) prior to its dissolution in January 2006, with an annual growth rate of .810% between the years of 1990 and 2002.

[1] Gikongoro Province was created after Rwanda gained its independence from Belgium in the Rwandan Revolution.

The southern and western outlands of Nyanza, the former capital of the Kingdom of Rwanda, became eastern Gikongoro.

According to Marijke Verpoorten, a researcher at University of Antwerp, the 1991 census under-reported Tutsi population figures.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has identified Gikongoro as the location of some of the "earliest attacks" and "worst massacres" of the Rwandan genocide.